American Minute with Bill Federer
The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was dedicated OCTOBER 28, 1886.
A gift from France, it weighs 450,000 lbs, and stands on a pedestal base, rising 305 feet from the ground to the top of its torch.
Earlier immense statues in history having symbolic meaning were the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - and the Colossus of Nero, from which the nearby amphitheater in Rome took its name - Colosseum, both statues being over 100 feet high.
Who is the King in America? - 6,000 Years of World History and Why America is Unique
The Statue of Liberty was built by Gustave Eiffel, the builder of the Eiffel Tower, according to the design of Auguste Bartholdi, who wrote:
"The statue was born for this place which inspired its conception.
May God be pleased to bless my efforts and my work, and to crown it with success, the duration and the moral influence which it ought to have."
At the Statue's dedication ceremony, Reverend Richard S. Storrs prayed:
"Our Heavenly Father ... by whose counsel and might the courses of the worlds are wisely ordained and irresistibly established ... We bless and praise Thee ...
It is in Thy favor, and through the operation of the Gospel of Thy Grace, that cities stand in quiet prosperity; that peaceful commerce covers the seas ...
We pray that the Liberty which it represents may continue ... for all the nations of the earth; that in equity and charity their sure foundations may be established ... that they may be ever the joyful servants of Him to Whose holy dominion and kingdom shall be no end."
Dwight Eisenhower remarked April 8, 1954:
"I have just come from ... the dedication of a new stamp ... The stamp has on it a picture of the Statue of Liberty and 'In God We Trust' ...
It represents ... a Nation whose greatness is based on a firm unshakeable belief that all of us mere mortals are dependent upon the mercy of a Superior Being."
Franklin Roosevelt spoke welcoming those legally immigrating and desiring to assimilate, October 17, 1939:
"Remembering the words written on the Statue of Liberty, let us lift a lamp beside new golden doors and build new refuges for the tired, for the poor, for the huddled masses yearning to be free."
In the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, on a bronze plaque, is the poem "The New Colossus," written in 1883 by the American Jewish poet Emma Lazarus:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus' poem of inspired Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of American poet Nathanial Hawthorne, to found the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in 1900 to care for those dying of cancer.
Emma Lazarus' poem was turned into a song in the 1949 musical "Miss Liberty," composed by Irving Berlin, the Jewish composer of "God Bless America."
The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was dedicated OCTOBER 28, 1886.
A gift from France, it weighs 450,000 lbs, and stands on a pedestal base, rising 305 feet from the ground to the top of its torch.
Earlier immense statues in history having symbolic meaning were the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - and the Colossus of Nero, from which the nearby amphitheater in Rome took its name - Colosseum, both statues being over 100 feet high.
Who is the King in America? - 6,000 Years of World History and Why America is Unique
The Statue of Liberty was built by Gustave Eiffel, the builder of the Eiffel Tower, according to the design of Auguste Bartholdi, who wrote:
"The statue was born for this place which inspired its conception.
May God be pleased to bless my efforts and my work, and to crown it with success, the duration and the moral influence which it ought to have."
At the Statue's dedication ceremony, Reverend Richard S. Storrs prayed:
"Our Heavenly Father ... by whose counsel and might the courses of the worlds are wisely ordained and irresistibly established ... We bless and praise Thee ...
It is in Thy favor, and through the operation of the Gospel of Thy Grace, that cities stand in quiet prosperity; that peaceful commerce covers the seas ...
We pray that the Liberty which it represents may continue ... for all the nations of the earth; that in equity and charity their sure foundations may be established ... that they may be ever the joyful servants of Him to Whose holy dominion and kingdom shall be no end."
Dwight Eisenhower remarked April 8, 1954:
"I have just come from ... the dedication of a new stamp ... The stamp has on it a picture of the Statue of Liberty and 'In God We Trust' ...
It represents ... a Nation whose greatness is based on a firm unshakeable belief that all of us mere mortals are dependent upon the mercy of a Superior Being."
Franklin Roosevelt spoke welcoming those legally immigrating and desiring to assimilate, October 17, 1939:
"Remembering the words written on the Statue of Liberty, let us lift a lamp beside new golden doors and build new refuges for the tired, for the poor, for the huddled masses yearning to be free."
In the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, on a bronze plaque, is the poem "The New Colossus," written in 1883 by the American Jewish poet Emma Lazarus:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus' poem of inspired Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of American poet Nathanial Hawthorne, to found the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in 1900 to care for those dying of cancer.
Emma Lazarus' poem was turned into a song in the 1949 musical "Miss Liberty," composed by Irving Berlin, the Jewish composer of "God Bless America."